SIT DOWN, HAVE A DRINK, RELAX.

The flowers that bloom in the spring

The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Breathe promise of merry sunshine —
As we merrily dance and we sing,
Tra la,
We welcome the hope that they bring,
Tra la,
Of a summer of roses and wine,
Of a summer of roses and wine.
And that’s what we mean when we say that a thing
Is welcome as flowers that bloom in the spring.
Tra la la la la,
Tra la la la la,
The flowers that bloom in the spring.

292 thoughts on “The flowers that bloom in the spring”

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Theresa May will urge EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday to keep the door open to continuing Brexit negotiations, after a two and a half hour cabinet meeting that underscored the challenge of bridging the gap between London and Brussels in the days ahead.

May told her colleagues on Tuesday: “If we as a government stand together and stand firm, we can achieve this.”

But a string of ministers intervened to stress the importance of time-limiting the Irish backstop and ensuring it did not separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK – both areas where the UK and the EU27 remain at loggerheads.

I worked in the construction industry in the 80s-early 90s. Vote 1 BLF ! 🙂 The building industry unions are bloody bolshie bustards and there is a very good reason for it. Safety costs money and by fcuk did companies take short cuts as soon as any back was turned. Short cuts also = dead bodies. In my time two poor buggers were killed on site, a fall and a ‘large object dropped from above’ . In both cases short cuts were to blame and pathetic fines imposed. Jail some of the company directors as it is from above the pressure to cut costs comes . Why the fark should working class Joe Blows pay the (ultimate) price 😦

As bad a companies were even @$$@$#!!!!! worse were the tradies who , encouraged by effing Labor’s ‘reforms’, took to being sub contractors for the big companies. when it came to screwing workers for pay and safety they were the kings. Made worse because not so long before the very same tradies had worked side by side with those they screwed over as employees of the Multiplex’s and Concrete Constructions. No wonder they lurved Howard. Greedy grasping bustards.

Wentworth byelection: Kerryn Phelps targeted by email smear campaign
Independent candidate dismisses ‘dirty tricks’ alleging she has HIV and is pulling out of the race

Kerryn Phelps, the leading independent candidate in the Wentworth byelection, has become the target of smear campaign in which emails have been sent to various organisations alleging she has HIV and has pulled out of the race.

The emails reported on the ABC said Phelps had been diagnosed with HIV on Tuesday and that voters should now divert their vote to the Liberal candidate, Dave Sharma

I’ve seen these tactics before, from the National Party. Deluges of mail with names and addresses taken from the electoral roll, sent out to spread filth about independent candidates. Nats don’t do emails, I don’t think they know such things exist.

The problem is these filth campaigns seem to have the reverse of the intended effect, they drive voters to the target, not away from them. It’s all too easy to work out where they come from, and to decide to put the sender last.

A reminder when and why the USA’s moral authority shrivelled up and died. Remember also some of those being praised for going after Trump were up to their eye balls in this obscenity.
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The New York Review of Books

The Innocence of Abu Zubaydah

……………………………And so Abu Zubaydah was tortured. As often as it has been repeated, the litany of this torture is still shocking. His captors hurled him into walls and crammed him into boxes and suspended him from hooks and twisted him into shapes that no human body can occupy. They kept him awake for seven consecutive days and nights. They locked him, for months, in a freezing room. They left him in a pool of his own urine. They strapped his hands, feet, arms, legs, torso, and head tightly to an inclined board, with his head lower than his feet. They covered his face and poured water up his nose and down his throat until he began to breathe the water, so that he choked and gagged as it filled his lungs. His torturers then left him to strain against the straps as he began to drown. Repeatedly. Until, just when he believed he was about to die, they raised the board long enough for him to vomit the water and retch. Then they lowered the board and did it again. The torturers subjected him to this treatment at least eighty-three times in August 2002 alone. On at least one such occasion, they waited too long and Abu Zubaydah nearly died on the board

Why do the Libs keep on dragging out Howard? He’s very much last century’s man. Don’t they have someone younger? Someone who doesn’t look like a mummified corpse? Someone who doesn’t remind voters he’s a big loser who pulled off the rare feat of losing both his own seat and government?

Howard’s appearance didn’t help the Libs in the Super Saturday by-elections, and might have contributed to Labor’s near-win in Bennelong.

Sharma must be dreading the appearance of the desiccated little coconut.

He’s all they’ve got. If he’d left politics in a manner of his own choosing, he might still be a handy weapon for the Liberals. But he didn’t. His humiliating ousting in 2007 was a blunt reminder to him that Australians didn’t want him any more. At all. Looks like he still hasn’t got that message.

The idea that Shorten can be raised as some kind of spooky threat has long, long passed its use-by date. It now comes across not as a clever tactic but more as a tired gesture.

Since it won’t be long till the 11th November, where there are so many momentous events to remember on that date..I want to get in early to remind people that it also is the day of the death of one of Australia’s greatest revolutionary sons…: Ned Kelly….Let us never forget to revere this Australian icon and revolutionary hero who, if he did not lead a mass revolution against the “born to rule” class, at least bloodied it’s nose! And truly.. was there any other “As game as Ned Kelly”?

Jasper was a “Balt’ ”..ie; he was of those states centered around the Baltic Sea..perhaps he could have been Estonian…he was a tall ponderous sort of chap…with a long serious gaze, with one of those what are called “lantern jawed” faces. He always spoke in a slow , carefully chosen word way..I don’t wonder many philosophers came from the Baltic States..Jasper appeared to put a lot of thought into what he said before he said it…but then he didn’t ever say much of great import.

He always wore shorts in the summer..not short shorts like a footballer, but loose baggy ones to the knee. He would sit at the bar pint in hand with legs crossed in a peculiar effeminate way..that is; with his legs entwined like women do…and he would stare incessantly at one person or spot before delivering some profound statement.

“Michael”..he announced out of the blue one day “Michael..would you tell your girlfriend to stop staring at my legs…I know I haff good, manly legs…but could she please not to stare at them so ?”

Of course , Mick was astonished and choked on his beer…Tracey, Mick’s girlfriend, was outraged and put on one hell of a show…Jasper was nonplussed by the whole affair and just commenced to roll a cigarette with his slow ponderous methodology.

Jasper had huge hands…big fingers more suited to blacksmithing or a farrier for draught horses than what he did do…but no-one knew quite what that was as he was an awful liar. Jasper’s toil at rolling a cigarette was something to watch..he was so clumsy with those big hands that it was quite a chore that exasperated him at times.

One day a “airy” young lady sitting next to him at the bar took out of her dilly-bag one of those automatic cigarette rollers where you place the paper then the tobacco, then lift or flip the lid and a perfectly formed “rolly” appears to greet you. Jasper, ciggy-paper stuck to his bottom lip watched this magic with deep concentration, his big paw all the while shoved deep into the pouch of tobacco…as he watched, the ciggy-paper fluttered with his breath on his lip…he detached it and addressed the young lady.

“That is a cleffer machine…a vonderful machine …where did you obtain it?” he asked in his slow deep voice.

“Well I didn’t steal it if that’s what you mean?’ The young woman replied.

“ I vas not accusing you, madam…you look like a honest young lady..an honest AND attractive young lady…perhaps later I would like to get to know you in a more familiar way..I like you..and I like your machine..I am asking where you haff purchased it”…

The following week, Jasper was seen to have one of those machines ..it would sit at his elbow on the bar next to his pouch of “Drum” tobacco…Jasper now had a contented look on his face, and he would gladly demonstrate the marvels of that machine to anyone who asked..and many would take advantage of his hospitality of the proffered resulting cigarette until he woke up to the fact that he was being taken for a ride…philosophers are like that, they learn fast!

Jasper disappeared out of our lives as quickly as he appeared..Late one night he asked Mick for a lift home on the back of his 1000cc. Suzuki…Mick delighted in putting the fear of god in anyone silly enough to ride pillion with him..Jasper had no sooner settled himself on the trembling machine and informed Mick to drive carefully as he, Jasper, was…and that was the last we heard of Jasper as Mick took off full-throttle and it was impossible to tell if it was the roar of the motor, the squeal of the tyre or the Joe. E. Brown howl of despair from Jasper as they disappeared down Yakka Road toward Sth. Brighton.

All this “nothing to see here, there’s no chance of a leadership change, we all love one another…..” stuff from teh nats sounds like the usual script the conservatives follow when they are about to knife a leader.

Most recent example?

The current (and interim) PM giving Turnbull a shoulder hug and saying “he’s my prime minister” just a few hours before he became PM himself. While he was gushing over Turnbull his fellow conspirators were finalising numbers for an assassination.

FFS! Enough is enough. Fresh from forcing the Opera House to promote a horse race the NSW government is planning to funnel people seeking service into poker-machine palaces to be served by free labour (in the name of training). https://t.co/NuNekkyQK0

I found this quote from “a spokesman for Clubs NSW” particularly stupid –
“It would mean, for example, that residents in Coleambally in the NSW Riverina region would no longer have to drive an hour to Griffith or Narrandera to renew their driver’s licence,” the spokesman said.

You can already renew your drivers licence online in NSW, there’s no need to drive anywhere to do it, unless you are over 75 years old. Oldies still have to front up in person. There are a few other conditions, but most of the population of Coleambally can already renew online.https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/renew-nsw-driver-licence

Maybe not so stupid. Without reading his whole speech – what he’s saying in this clip is it’s daycare that does the damage. Much as I hate to agree with Gillespie, just in what we see in this clip, I think he’s right.

There’s a big difference between preschool, which is structured education, usually for only two or three days a week, and depending on the age of the child might only be for a couple of hours a day, and daycare, which is basically just child minding and can be full-time, even long day care, 5 days a week. Childcare centres often play on parents being ill-informed and talk up their “education” programs, but these are pretty much non-existent and what is done is more along the lines of “stuff” to keep kids entertained instead of educating them.

Ms Workman doesn’t have kids, she doesn’t understand the distinction.

This is why preschool staff have to have degrees in early childhood education while daycare staff only need a TAFE Certificate 3 in childcare.

Actually my niece’s baby attends day care. It is run by trained pre-school teachers. The kids are being exposed to a quality program like painting, farm yard animals, petting zoo, eating with other kids.

Do you really think Tony Abbott’s school chum, Dr Doolittle, has actually read the research or is he grasping at any excuse to keep the little woman at home tied to the apron strings or domestic servitude

I’d normally be mildly anti-Royalist, but my godson met Prince Harry today so I’m making an exception. He was one of the schoolkids at the beach clean-up thing, and I’ve just been informed he had a short chat with Prince Harry. Channel Seven had rolling coverage all day, but because of the delays earlier, the beach bit came after their scheduled programming during whatever ghastly show they have from 3-4 pm, so they were running infomercials and ads while the royals were meeting the schoolkids. Channel Nine filmed the interaction, apparently, so I’ll be watching the news to see if there’s anything.

Nice moment for the boy. He’s already had a great year, having gone to Japan on a school trip (he’s state school, not private) and passed his Grade 6 piano exam (with an A – he’s 11, and I’m told this is a pretty young age to be passing Grade 6 piano). I’m quite proud of the kid.

Dr GILLESPIE (Lyne) (16:07): It’s obvious that there is universal agreement across this House that early childhood education is critical in developing the best for every child. I just want to point out some pretty obvious facts that have been distorted by the other side.

We are funding compulsory preschool of 15 hours a week, with $428 million this year and $444 million next year. There are also negotiations already afoot to make sure that the money actually leads to children attending preschool. You don’t get any benefit from funding; you get benefit from going to preschool for those 15 hours a week. As the minister, the member for Wannon, so accurately pointed out, the attendance figures for 15 hours a week of preschool are notoriously bad in many states who are quite happy to accept the funds but don’t ensure the children turn up for preschool. In some states it’s at low as 40 per cent—in many it’s 50 per cent—and the more remote and disadvantaged areas are the ones with the lowest attendance. That’s why there are negotiations going on. In fact, the federal government never paid for preschool—it was solely a state responsibility—up until 2008, so we want to make sure that states are not taking the money without delivering the service.

Everyone understands that early learning influences the transition into school, but a lot of the argument is based on overseas experience. We have evidence, which many on the other side are familiar with, that attendance at preschool in the year before your schooling improves your NAPLAN score in year 3. There are lots of figures showing that going to preschool before your schooling means you are much more likely to finish and graduate out of school, less likely to drop out from school, and more likely to have better outcomes.

But there is nothing wrong with your early learning being delivered in a family daycare centre rather than a formal preschool situation or with your own family. In fact, there is a lot of evidence coming out of Europe, from Germany and Italy—I’ve got the articles here; I can show you later, Mr Deputy Speaker—that in some quarters extra formal daycare leads to a lower IQ down the track and that there is less beneficial social and emotional wellbeing and more aggressiveness in children that are in very long daycare. So we’ve got to be careful how much we take on as a state and how much we let parents interact with their children.

The evidence is that the benefit is greatest to the child where the parents aren’t delivering that sort of one-on-one stimulation, play, interaction, early reading, looking at images and speech development. In remoter areas English might be a first language or a second language or third language. We have lots of migrant parents in this country who aren’t fluent in English and theirs are the kids who will get the biggest benefit. That’s what our policy is all focused on and that’s why we are arguing with the states to get the attendance figures up, and we’ll deliver the money.

The other thing that is not very well appreciated is a lot of these figures about attendance in the years before school are based on the European experience. Children in a lot of countries in Europe—and I’ve got some figures here—do not start school at 4½ or just turning five like here in Australia; they start at seven and six, so the two years before school are actually older than what we are advocating here in Australia. In Finland, school starts at seven. In the UK, it has been an issue in the press there that children who have just turned five shouldn’t be let to go to school because they start their school in the middle of their summer, or our winter, whereas we start school in January, in the middle of their winter. In Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and Hungary, they start school between six and seven, so preschool for them is when you’re five and six, not four and three. I mean, we’re not all going to end up rocket scientists and with PhDs because we have our children in preschool at the age of three.

Obviously a response to Labor’s plans to fund a year of preschool for all kids. That idea goes way back to the Whitlam era.

So yes, I do agree with him on the importance of preschool education, but he’s wrong in saying the federal government never funded preschools. They did.

Whitlam wanted as many kids as possible to have one year of preschool education, but getting that funding up and running was quite a battle. The process kept getting derailed by protests about working mothers needing daycare more urgently than preschool. The policy morphed into one that provided childcare and preschools. The responsibility for funding childcare and preschools was gradually handed over to the states by 1986 all funding was a state responsibility. Now the federal government is more involed, as are some councils.

My eldest attended a community-run preschool built with funding from the Whitlam government. There were similar community preschools popping up all over the country from about 1975, when funding was finally approved. Unfortunately Howard’s privatisation saw many of them sold off to ABC Learning and turned into profit-making ventures.

I’m not getting into the debate on when kids should start school,it’s too complicated.

Kids need social interaction whether that be by extended family or by school, it has to be. For us, the mothers in the street had “coffee clubs” where they and the kids got together for a morning. Worked a treat.

Preschools are fine, provided they don’t pretend to be schools. You shouldn’t try to school three- or four-year olds.

Just now realizing: Khashoggi was banned in KSA was not because he was critical of Mohammad bin Salman, the devastation of Yemen, Wahhabism, or the Salafi movement. It was because, ON NOVEMBER 10, 2016, in DC, Khashoggi mildly criticized…Donald Trump. https://t.co/GeFh0nlJ0l

Here are some of the most powerful moments from this week's debate. It really can't be underestimated how surprisingly impassioned Steve Minnikin's speech was last night when he became the first LNP member to break ranks and support the bill https://t.co/nx8jU3I3nw#qldpolpic.twitter.com/TEXcHkaqtC

This thread worth reading especially for outlets which falsely stated NSW was the last state in which abortion sits in criminal legislation. It is an easy mistake as access to terminations in South Australia is more equitable than in some other states. https://t.co/Bp7NnjtPVG

Hopefully you can open the FT article via the twitter link, as you get one free read by social media a day (I think). Or you coud have installed that paywall dodging Firefox add-on like I suggested a while ago, and read all you want!

Always interesting to see the AP, AFP, or Reuters summarised versions of Australian news, as that’s the only bit of news the casual overseas reader is likely to see about us. The sort of articles that end up on hundreds of other websites.

Menswear chain Roger David will embark on an immediate national closing down sale that could see the business shut down shortly after Christmas after being placed in voluntary administration. https://t.co/vBsiGKy72H#ausbiz

I don’t understand why the Nats would replace McCormack because the Libs lose a by-election. It would not be McCormack’s fault. No-one in Wentworth votes National, they couldn’t if they wanted to, they aren’t allowed to have a Nats candidate.

I think the Nats are just holding off their leadership problem until after the by-election because they don’t want to cause a distraction. For obvious reasons (hung parliament, becoming the opposition, etc) they want the Libs to keep that seat.

My archives for South Australia, dating from the 19th century show a class intent on looking after its own interests..to the point of actual murder and reckless irresponsibility to secure either the health OR future well-being of a developing state. Any substantial infrastructure that DID evolve seems to have been from desperate community lobbying in times of absolute despair or from opportune discovery of mineral potential…THEN..those powers that were in situ moved fast! …oh if there was a buck to be made, they were right onto it!…

Small pox and other introduced contagions were apparent from the first years of boat arrivals, yet there was little precaution taken to halt its spread among the indigenous population…as a matter of recorded fact, one could find reason to conclude that “contact” between young indigenous women and those first settlers infected had no hindrance..indeed, even a nudge / wink encouragement…after all, two ethnic groups : The Anglo / European are company…the third was a tad crowded..especially if that third were owners of the land…if you get my drift.

As example, in the early years of the 20th century, a railway was proposed to continue from Truro in the eastern hills, down onto the Murray Flats where there were numerous Germanic settler farmers opening up the land and then onto the local centre on the Flats : Sedan.

This was mapped, planned and wanted by all concerned in the district..its benefit would have been immeasurable to that area of cropping and stock produce, supplying a reliable source to the capital..Likewise would the Telephone to that same area have been a boost to the Germanic population there, giving them a ready access to rural suppliers and business / medical connections.

But then the 1st WW broke out and suddenly those third generation Germanic settlers became a button for the racist National Defence League ; the fore-runner of the Liberal Party, to push to get more fear into the community and their own bums on seats in Parliament…So BOTH projects were canned on the fear that the first could be blown up by German saboteurs and the telephone could become a direct line from the Germans to Kaiser Bill….

“The borders must be secured”…

This nation has been infected with a ruling class bacterium for much too many years..Mao was correct with his announcement : “Away with all pests!”

#breaking Exclusive: The morning after abortion was decriminalised in Queensland, White Ribbon Australia confirmed it has retracted its statement in support of safe and legal abortion. The new CEO told me WRA will now be "agnostic" on reproductive rights: https://t.co/ppVjhq2WBu

In this extract from her new memoir, Anne Summers describes her first year in the Canberra Press Gallery after being lured back from the United States in late 1978 https://t.co/uxCnEqe2kM#ausmedia#ozhist

Since then my doubts have grown. Despite all the hype domestic violence is becoming a bigger problem, rates are increasing. It seems White Ribbon Australia’s approach, using men to target men, isn’t working. There have also been a few reports of decisions to accept donations from hotels, proceeds of gambling and liquor wholesalers. Alcohol and financial problems resulting from gambling are two of the main causes of domestic abuse, yet the organisation was happy to accept the proceeds of these activities as donations.

The most illogical decisions have been about whether or not the organisation supports abortion. They are damned if they issue a statement of support, as they did in November 2017, and damned if they retract a statement, as they have just done. It would have been better to stay away from the abortion issue completely. I know statistics tell us unwanted pregnancies are higher among women experiencing domestic abuse, but there must be better ways for White Ribbon Australia to support women than by making what are really publicity statements and then retracting them.

An organisation that allows itself to be dictated to by churches and “other Christian groups” is not really in the business of putting an end to domestic abuse. It’s in the business of empire building and will say and do whatever it thinks necessary to keep that money and publicity rolling in.